AI In the News: Week of October 18, 2023

In this episode, the DAS crew covered several interesting AI developments and news items from the week of October 18, 2023, spanning new product features, business impacts, and academic research applications.

Key news stories discussed:

• Adobe Premiere Pro added text-based video editing capabilities similar to Descript. The hosts debated whether the new audio dubbing feature sounds natural enough for professional use.
• Descript announced new overdub feature to generate audio clips in a user's voice. But the demo clip highlighted limitations in accurately emulating real vocal dynamics.
• Baidu claimed its new AI model is on par with Google's BARD and Anthropic's Claude models. But hosts were skeptical of putting BARD in the same league.
• Coding platform GitHub is losing money due to AI's impact. StackOverflow also laid off staff amid the AI coding boom.
• Video editing app CapCut launched a business version for TikTok advertisers. Nvidia and Foxconn are teaming up to build "AI factories".
• Researchers used AI to help decipher an ancient burned scroll from Pompeii, identifying one translated word.
• The virtual assistant app Pi can now search the internet, but faces stiff competition from Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant.

Overall, an exciting week of product updates, business impacts and novel AI applications across industries. The rapid pace of AI advancement leads to continuous waves of new developments.